Nauset high school bids are $20M over budget. What this means for renovation

NORTH EASTHAM —The $132 million Nauset Regional High School renovation project is beginning but the final cost may soar past that figure.

The school administration has already purchased temporary classrooms for use during construction and $27 million has been bonded, according to town officials. But preliminary subcontractor bids on some of the work are $20 million more than previous estimates, according to Ron Collins, Orleans Facilities Manager and member of the Nauset School Building Committee. The final impact will not be known until the general contractor bids are received Oct. 19.

Collins said the subcontractor bids cover items like heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, masonry, elevators, flooring, tile and painting.

Eastham Town Administrator Jacqueline Beebe sent a memo to other town officials about the high bids, Collins said.

Bids for HVAC (hearing, ventilation and air conditioning) were the worst, being $7 million to $9 million over expectations, Collins told the Orleans Select Board on Sept. 28.

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What is the Nauset high school project?

The Nauset high school project will renovate and resize 33 classrooms and eight science labs and improve energy efficiency, air quality and security.

The estimated cost was $131,825,665 and the district has obtained a grant of $36,661,305 leaving an estimate of $95,164,360 for the four towns in the regional school district — Orleans, Brewster, Eastham and Wellfleet.

All four towns approved the funding at town meetings and each town’s share is based on the student population from that town. Under the original estimate the assessments to the towns were $45.7 million for Brewster, $18.6 million for Orleans, $18.4 million for Eastham and $14.5 million for Wellfleet.

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Ultimately the general contractor chosen by the building committee will select which subcontractors to use. Collins said they usually select the lowest bidders. There were five approved qualified general contractors for the project.

In theory, the four towns would need to come up with additional money

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“If we’re over, the towns would have to pay that direct," said Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly.

The sources of grants for the project won't be increasing their contribution, Kelly said.

"At the end of the day you have to go back to town meeting in the four towns and appropriate additional funds so the project can go forward unless the general construction bids include a reduction to make up that $20 million," he said. "The towns have voted a set dollar amount as a cap. And they cannot exceed that unless they go back to the four towns and have another vote.”

An Orleans town meeting is set for Oct. 17.

How towns could address added costs

“All of our towns voted a certain facility size capability," Orleans Select Board member Kevin Galligan said.

The towns can’t get to the original estimate without eliminating an entire wing, Galligan said.

The option of reducing the project size to eliminate $20 million may not be viable, though.

“They would have to have alternates already in the specifications,” Kelly said. “You can’t negotiate. You have to award a lump sum. (Jacqueline Beebe) indicated the project could be in trouble and it may have to go back to the towns for additional consideration, if the towns are willing to do that. So you’ll know more on Oct. 19.”

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Generally, the general contractor takes the subcontractor bids and puts together the total project cost, Kelly said. Then there’ll be a recommendation from the school building committee back to the region, and then the region has to take it back to the four towns, he said.

Inflation has escalated costs, said Orleans Public Works Director Tom Daley. Orleans voted to spend $13.5 million for a new public works building in 2017. Right now, he said, a similar building in another southeastern Massachusetts town has an estimated cost of $40 million.

“Three times the cost in five years,” Daley said. “That’s the reality.”

Contact Rich Eldred at reldred@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reldredCodder.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Nauset high school subcontractor bids $20M over budget for renovation